Lawyer files disqualification cue vs Koko Pimentel over term limit

MANILA, Philippines — Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio yesterday filed a disqualification case against re-electionist Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) over alleged violation of the two-term limit.

Pimentel expressed confidence he would “prevail” and that the Comelec may just dismiss the “nuisance petition.”

In a nine-page petition, Topacio said the Comelec should cancel or deny due course to Pimentel’s certificate of candidacy (COC) for senator because he is not allowed to seek a third term.

“Having already served for two consecutive terms as a senator, Senator Pimentel is clearly ineligible to run for the same office,” said Topacio, a lawyer known to represent celebrities and politicians. 

Topacio maintained that if Pimentel wins in the 2019 polls, it “would allow him to serve for more than two consecutive terms,” violating Article VI,  Section 4 of the 1987 Constitution. 

Pimentel ran for senator in the 2007 polls but lost the last Senate slot to Sen. Miguel Zubiri whose victory he questioned before the Senate Electoral Tribunal.

But in August 2011, Zubiri resigned and he was replaced by Pimentel. 

Pimentel ran and won to serve his first full Senate term in the 2013 elections. Zubiri later ran and won in the 2016 senatorial race.

According to Topacio, Pimentel also committed material misrepresentation when he declared in his COC that he is eligible to run in next year’s senatorial race.

Topacio told reporters that his filing of the case is not personal as he even considered Pimental as his “longtime friend.”

However, he claimed that he advised the senator not to seek re-election due to the term limit but the latter went on to file his COC last Oct. 11, among the first to do so. – With Paolo Romero